Enough
by spelerison
Summary: "... I thought you understood that… I would've sworn it was in your eyes. No worries, no pressure, just dinner and drinks and nature playing itself out with time. It wasn't much, but it was enough." Set three months after the shows end. Angled in the N/E direction.


**A/N:** Drop me prompts for this pair guys, I just LLLLLOOOOOVVVVEEEEEE 'em

**Enough**

"She left me Eliot" Nate's words met his ears as soon as he opened the door. He was tempted to slam it but instead he asked, "And why would I care?"

"I guess I deserve that" Nate conceded as he slumped against the door frame.

"What did you expect Nate?" He sighed as he gripped the door handle tighter.

"It's been a long time since I've had expectations." His laugh was self-deprecating, and it had Eliot going against better judgment as he opened his door wide. "What happened?"

"She said she wouldn't marry a man who couldn't commit." Nate started as he pressed himself against the now closed door.

"You proposed for Christ's sake! How much more commitment does the woman want?" He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"She said she didn't want an empty title."

"So, don't give her one. Say you're sorry, marry the woman, and build yourself a happy little life." He couldn't quite hide the sarcasm in those last few words.

"The problem is, I don't know if I can. I love her, but I didn't realize how hard it would be to walk away."

"It's only been a few months; you'll get used to retirement."

"I wasn't talking about work."

"What else is there to talk about?"

"You see, five years is a long time" Nate ignored Eliot's words. "You kind of get used to things… people… their habits. You don't think you will, but once their gone you… you remember their dry sense of humor, their quick wit, the conversations you shared while the rest of the world slept."

"Nate" Eliot shook his head in warning.

"The companionship, the little gestures that spoke more than I was willing to hear."

"You're talking out your ass." He knew where Nate was headed, but he didn't want to hear it.

"Am I?" Nate followed Eliot to his living room but stopped just short of making the same lap around the couch. "Dinner, drinks, always just a little too angry, sometimes just a little too close."

"Where I come from, we call that charity. Ya' take care of people that are too drunk and stupid to take care of themselves."

"See," Nate ignored the insult, instead he took a seat on the couch and said, "Just a little too angry, but why?"

"Because you're annoying as hell!"

"That's nothing new" Nate shrugged as he inspected the book that was open on the cushion beside him. "But this is".

"I don't know what you're goin' on about cuz there is no this." Eliot snatched the book in frustration, tossing it to the chair.

"Sure there is." But Nate didn't clarify, instead he announced, "I left that book here… and that bourbon." He pointed to the nearly empty bottle on the shelf. "I never returned this jacket either."

"Your point being?"

"If someone leaves something behind you call them up, bring it over if you have to but you return it. If they don't finish their drink you pour it out and call it a night. That is unless you're expecting them to return, then you hold onto it all and wait." Nate leaned forward, his hands folded, elbows on his knees. "I'm waiting, you're waiting…. But what are we waiting for?"

"For you to leave."

"What was it that we were doing Eliot?" With a deep breath he asked, "What were we? What are we?"

"You're engaged!" He nearly exploded, his face red with the force of those words.

"But I'm not. I said she left me Eliot. What I didn't tell you was when."

"Like it matters, it's all part of the game with you two. A few weeks' time and you'll be playing cat and mouse all over again: married edition."

"It's been about two months' time and I don't see that happening. She wanted to marry the mystery not the man. I was serious about retirement, but after about 3 weeks she realized we didn't have the same type of retirement in mind. She knows Nathan the con man, and Nathan the honest man, Nathan the puzzle solver, but the only puzzle I wanted to solve was the Sunday crossword. She was so busy trying to find the real her, that she apparently never noticed the real me. Turns out we don't mesh so well without the mystery. Just like the cat and the mouse… all the fun was in the chase."

"Then it's over between you two?"

"I really couldn't commit, not to another con, not when I'd be conning myself."

"So what have you been doing for two months?"

"Thinking… at first about Sophie, but then my mind turned to dinner and drinks, to late night conversations, to you sitting just a little too closely on this couch. To me secretly wanting to close that gap completely." He tried to make eye contact, but Eliot turned away. "That's a hard thing to admit, even to myself, but I couldn't stop thinking about it and what it was."

"You want to know what it was?" Angrily he turned back. "It was an unspoken understanding…. or so I thought! So what, we had dinner and drinks, everyone eats and you love to drink! Yes, we had conversations that were outside of normal hours but it kind of becomes necessity when I'm almost always working dusk 'til dawn and so what I sat too close. You go and get sucker punched on the daily and then tell me it isn't nice to feel somebody nearby who will watch your back for five damn minutes so you can rest your eyes!"

"Okay," Nate nodded with a little more reservation. "But before we throw this all under the bridge with that neat little bow tell me where I got it wrong."

A frustrated huff.

"Go ahead, tell me it's all in my mind."

"I can't read your mind."

"Then say it's just my own emotions manifesting themselves onto you."

"How about I say five years is a lifetime for someone like me Nate." His gaze was sharp even as his resolve crumbled. "It might as well be an eternity, yet I dedicated it to this team. And I'm fine with that, I didn't mind watching five backs instead of one, but it's been isolating." His jaw clenched with the admission. "I understand that I'm not a sparkling conversationalist and I get why I was never first to be approached, but everyone needs validation eventually Nate. Everyone needs someone to make them feel like they belong. I just needed someone… someone to help me feel something. So yeah, we had dinner and drinks, and I felt a little more normal. We talked and for once it seemed like someone actually cared about what I had to say. We got closer so yes, I moved closer, but I didn't expect anything. I never asked for anything! This "this" between us Nate was nice, it was natural. It was just dinner, and drinks, and someone close by who was really good at making me feel a little less alone. And I thought you understood that… I would've sworn it was in your eyes. No worries, no pressure, just dinner and drinks and nature playing itself out with time. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Until you proposed. You fucking proposed! No warning, nothing… you're just getting married and that's that. Adios Eliot. You hopped on that boat without a second thought while my dumbass was left sitting here second-guessing it all! Feeling annoyed, irritated, frustrated, and damn well humiliated!"

"I… uh… um" He was dumbfounded by that confession, pained by the actual shame he heard in Eliot's voice.

"With a wake-up call like that it's hard not to be angry." Though he sounded more resigned.

"I never realized." The thought hadn't entered his mind until after Sophie left. When loneliness started creeping in and he found it wasn't her he was missing.

"You didn't need to" Eliot sighed. "It was good enough for what it was."

"And now?"

"Now it isn't so simple. There's no going back to that ignorance."

"Now we have to name it." Nate realized.

"Friendship doesn't quite cut it, but…" Eliot trailed off, not sure of the options now on the table. "We've got decisions to make."

"Do you want a relationship Eliot?" He looked up to the other man, still unsure of what his own answer would be.

"I don't know." He finally slumped to the couch with that admittance. "But I guess it's something to consider."

"What are the alternatives?" All he could think of was the awkwardness that would come if they forced something that wasn't meant to be or if they ignored something that was.

"You're the mastermind."

"There's no strategy in the heart."

"You can cut out the heart."

"I hope you're speaking figuratively" Nate's eyebrow stayed raised even as he agreed, "But yeah, we can take the feelings out of it and see how things lie."

"Or we could hand it back over to time."

"Well" He considered it silently for a moment before thinking aloud. "Seeing as I just retired, the one thing I do have is plenty of time."

"So," He stretched the word as he fully processed the thought. It had taken five years to tangle the knot they were now facing, surely they wouldn't be expected to untangle it in a night. "We wait?"

"For the time being." It wasn't much of a plan, but it comforted him none the less. "For now though, I was thinking, how about dinner and drinks?"

"I'd like that" Eliot's contentment didn't cross his features, but there was the faintest smile hidden in twinkling eyes. "and I think" He slid from his cushion to Nate's, settling in just a little too close as he claimed, "There's a Sunday crossword around here somewhere."


End file.
